Türkiye's foreign trade deficit widened 13.6% year-over-year despite the highest-ever July exports, with the seven-month gap climbing 8.3%, official data showed Friday.
Exports rose 2.9% year-over-year to $25.62 billion, Türkiye's second-highest monthly export value on record, while imports increased 5.1% to $32.97 billion.
That led to a trade deficit of $7.34 billion in July, pushing the shortfall in the seven-month period to $60.55 billion, data by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) and the Trade Ministry showed.
The export-to-import coverage ratio declined to 77.7% from 79.4% in July 2025.
Despite regional conflicts and adverse global conditions, exports in the January-July period grew 3.4% year-over-year to $161.5 billion, Trade Minister Ömer Bolat said.
Imports during the seven months climbed 4.7% to nearly $222.1 billion.
Türkiye's annualized exports increased 3.4%, or $9.2 billion, from a year earlier to $278.5 billion as of July.
Annualized imports rose 4.9%, or $17.6 billion, to $375.3 billion, the data showed.
Bolat said exports remained resilient despite ongoing geopolitical tensions, increasingly difficult international conditions, rising protectionism and weak external demand.
The government will continue strengthening Türkiye's export potential through financing, export support, guidance and the activities of its overseas organization, he added.
"We will continue working with all our strength in the coming period to exceed the Medium-Term Program export target of $282 billion," Bolat said.
Germany was Türkiye's largest export destination in July, receiving goods worth over $2 billion, followed by the U.S. with $1.7 billion, the U.K. with $1.3 billion, Iraq with $1.1 billion and Italy with $1.1 billion.
China was the largest source of imports at over $5 billion, followed by Russia at $3.2 billion and Germany at $2.5 billion.
Manufacturing products accounted for 94.4% of total exports, while high-technology goods represented 4.4% of manufacturing exports.
